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Character Journeys: Mayu's Trust Issues
A painfully traumatic past can, in many cases, destroy one's ability to trust others and to believe in a better future; this is doubly true for those who suffered these traumas at very young ages. For Mayu, this was true for a very long time throughout the Elfen Lied Manga. The following essay seeks to explore this evolution in her outlook, from the frightened, broken child that escaped her abusive home; to a stronger young woman, slowly coming to hope for and believe in a better future in her life. This journey is one of the hardest and most well-earned, yet most scarcely shown in the Manga, (and even less so in the Anime). After all, how can you trust others when the ones closest to you, the ones with the responsibility and duty to protect you and raise you through your early stages of life, are the ones who betrayed you in the worst way imaginable? When Mayu is introduced, she is a homeless girl, wandering aimlessly with only her little pet dog Wanta as company. From her first appearance, it's clear that she has a story, and not a happy one. The first two actions she is shown doing in the show, however, serve to cement to the viewer that despite all the hardships, she has not completely broken. Despite the pain she feels, she is still willing to do what she perceives to be the right thing. When meeting Bando right after he was savagely maimed by Lucy, who at that point in time was little better than her own stepfather as he was nothing but a sadistic thrill-killer, she actually gathered the courage to calm the frantic man down and try to provide what little help she can give him, making a tourniquet for his severed arm to prevent further blood loss. Next, upon finding a lost umbrella, she just heads to the address she found in it, intent to return it. And on that very same day, upon stumbling onto the deadly duel between Lucy and Nana, she would make a futile effort to stop the battle, only to find herself providing the distraction Lucy needed, making her witness part of Nana's own brutal maiming, only to be knocked unconscious immediately afterwards by Lucy herself. Her selflessness, even in the face of the suffering she had endured and continued to endure at that point, and even in the face of potential danger, represent that part of her the abuse couldn't extinguish. But despite this, her pain and trauma is no less evident. After been picked up from the hospital by Kouta (Mayu ended up calling their house's phone on the hospital, not knowing where else to go), having has a nice dinner and a warm bath at their home, Mayu runs away from Maple House due to not desiring to be a burden, feelings of worthlessness none too uncommon in abuse victims. The flashbacks to her past show the depths of her misery and pain, as well as the nature of her own family's betrayal. Neglected by her mother, she was alone and unable to defend herself of her stepfather's sexual depredations of her body. Such a tragedy is, depressingly enough, a common occurrence across the world, and one likely to leave marks that may last for the rest of the child's life. It was in such an instance where Mayu needed her mother the most. Finally unable to bear it any longer in silence, Mayu ultimately decided to tell her mother of the abuse her stepfather was putting her through. However, far from providing her daughter with any sort of comfort or help, her mother's reply was to strike her down, refusing to acknowledge her daughter had been a victim of horrible abuse, and instead choosing to view her own child as a competitor for her husband's "attentions". The revelation of her mother's callous indifference, even jealousy and scorn, at her plight, is what finally pushes the girl over the edge, deciding that anything would be better than continuing to live in that wretched home that had become her prison. And so, she chose to run. Escape that place that she know knew, was never welcome to begin with. Thus, the flashbacks show how she ended up homeless in the first place, finding herself alone and broken, barely surviving on her own. And through those hard days, the trauma and loneliness slowly eroded the girl's will to live, until, at her lowest point, she would outright attempt suicide (Although not explicit, her actions demonstrate suicidal intent via the customs of Japanese people regarding suicide). However, what happened next could serve to show that even in one's lowest points, there can be a small light, a hope that can keep you alive. For Mayu, that hope materialized as she tried to drown herself on the beach, when a lonely and lost puppy called out to her. The cub, who Mayu would call Wanta, became her lifeline in those harsh days. Her only friend, and only family. And it was in such a state that Mayu enters the story. A lonely girl who lost her innocence and her home, who now faced a life of constant struggle, with Wanta as her only company, and too scared to try and reach out for other people. And, as if fate had not finished with it's cruelty, Mayu would then, albeit temporarily, lose Wanta to a complete stranger, who would then callously dismiss her as a thief and a vagrant. That would not deter Kouta or Yuka, though. The young couple, by pure kindness alone, managed to bring Mayu to the fold of their house. In the Anime, by finding her and bringing her home to escape the police, and in the manga... purely because the lost, lonely girl returned to their home on her own volition, to be greeted by a surprise party they had prepared just for her. It would be nice to say this was the end of Mayu's journey, and that with a new house, she'd live happily ever after and overcome the misery she had endured until them with the love and support of her new family. However, as it's true for most victims of childhood traumas, the reality is not that simple, nor is it as kind... The initial time on Maple House for Mayu (an unspecified amount of time neither Manga nor Anime could fully clarify) seemed blissful for the young girl, who eagerly helped the college students that were now de facto (and likely de jure once her mother surrendered custody of her almost immediately upon being contacted by them) her adopted parents with all sorts of house chores. Mayu's gratefulness was evident, and she had put both Kouta and Yuka in a great pedestal. A pedestal that was as high as it was fragile... So fragile, in fact, that all it would take is one misunderstanding to send the poor broken girl into a spiral of suspicion and self-doubt. Said misunderstanding involving, of course, one of the various awkward incidents Nyuu would cause through her time at the Inn. Seeing Nyuu jump on the bath with Kouta, one might say, was practically a common occurrence among her perverted antics. But witnessing it firsthand would cause Mayu to instantly remember her stepfather's cruelty, and coldly shut down any attempts from Kouta to explain the situation, her previous experiences souring her to Kouta, and even made her close herself off from Yuka, who seemed to realize something was wrong almost immediately. This attitude would carry on, at the very least, until Nyuu's antics put Kouta and Yuka alike into a compromising situation, leading Mayu to, at one point, just mutter that the house was full of perverts, only to then instantly get fondled by Nyuu. Curiously enough, though, Nyuu let her be after her protests; but whether that was due to sensing how upset she was, or just not being impressed by her small breasts remains unknown. That said, as she began developing inside the Maple House, the most curious part of her journey would be, without a shadow of a doubt, her budding bond with the resident violent maniac: Bando. Their first encounter, as previously mentioned, involved Mayu treating a physically crippled Bando and making a small, but meaningful attempt to nurse him back to health. Some time later, she would find Bando seemingly fully healed. At first, Mayu is relieved to see him alive and well, to which Bando expressed huge frustration at the notion of owing his life to such a young, harmless-looking girl. Nonetheless, he still is willing to make true to his life-debt, giving her his own phone number so she may call for his aid anytime she needs it. Their talk, however, quickly turns sour as the topic of Nyu is mentioned, resulting in Bando aggressively interrogating her, to the point of physically attacking her. Mayu, however, cleverly used the very same favor he owed to her in order to make him leave her alone, with the girl left to ponder why was he seemingly so obsessed with revenge against the seemingly innocent and child-like Nyuu. That would be the start of an awkward relationship between the two, which would continue to evolve as the Manga progressed, with the Anime marking this moment as the end of any interaction they may have. Shortly afterwards, two new members of the slowly growing family would come, or in one case return, to her life: the chirpy, naive Nana, and the quiet, but talented Nozomi. In Nana, Mayu found a girl, seemingly of her own age, to share experiences with, and furthermore, she found in her a lost, scared little girl who had no clue of the workings of the world and was in dire need of guidance. Her interactions with Nozomi, on the other hand, would become scarce throughout the manga. A true irony, and perhaps a lost chance, for Nozomi's suffering at the hands of her father would very much be something Mayu would know of. After the incident with Mariko, of which she was kept completely in the dark, Mayu would spend the next six months slowly beggining to grow out of her shell. Of course, it would have been naive to assume that even those six months of relative peace would come to be the final remedy of her traumatic experiences. As Nana would point out in a narration, Mayu is ultimately still "not good with boys". This however, would not stop her from visiting a certain homeless man to provide him food. Said man being none other than Bando himself, who she seemed to have been trying to approach in those six months of peace. Moreover, it would seem, after all those months, that Mayu had begun to trust, or at least grow to care for, Kouta again. Unfortunatey for Mayu, and for her new family, this peace was soon to be perturbed. With horrific consequences for all those involved. The beggining of the end would be marked by perhaps Mayu's second most traumatic experience shown in the series. (TBC...) Category:Essays Category:Themes Category:Mayu Category:Story Related Category:Series Information Category:Manga Category:Anime Category:Character Journeys